https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzp3Lh9zCNU&amp;feature=youtu.beKul Chandra Gautam’s life is an inspirational story of how a school boy in one of the poorest and remotest districts in Nepal went on to become the seniormost Nepali in the United Nations. He achieved this by a lot of hard work, extraordinary perseverance, and never losing sight of his duty to help those in underserved parts of the world, like where he grew up as a boy.Gautam is a soft-spoken, but hardcore believer in democracy, open society, non-violence and has a strong commitment to social justice. While at UNICEF, he was a dynamo for reform, believing that the UN itself had to change if it wanted to change the world. After devoting his entire career for the welfare of children worldwide, he returned to Nepal in 2008 to contribute to his motherland.The manuscript of his memoir was cut in two by his publisher, nepa-laya. The first part came out as <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Lost-in-transition-kul-chandra-gautam-review,2734" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lost in Transition: Rebuilding Nepal from the Maoist Mayhem and the Mega Earthquake</a> in 2015. Rubeena Mahato, who reviewed the book for this paper, wrote then: ‘In a brilliant counter-narrative, Gautam destroys the dominant discourse that eulogises the Maoist war as a natural and inevitable uprising of the oppressed, arguing instead that the war cut short Nepal’s march towards democracy and development and pushed us into protracted transition.’A prequel to that book is being launched next week: Global Citizen from Gulmi: My Journey from the Hills of Nepal to the Halls of the United Nations. This is Gautam’s real memoir that narrates his personal antecedents and experiences as a world citizen which lend both books credibility, and makes him a bête noire of the Stalinist votaries of violence in our midst.We first catch a glimpse of Kunjarmani Gautam as a young boy, as his grandfather taught him the Devnagari alphabet in Gulmi by writing them down on the ground with a stick. He later changed his name to Kul Chandra Gautam, a favourite poet. The young boy impresses Peace Corps volunteers in Tansen with his self-taught English and prowess at Scrabble. <img width="400" height="645" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714114/636902d19c7e80680e037c87jpeg.jpg" alt=""/>Gautam then gets a full scholarship to Dartmouth College in the US, but has his first run-in with bureaucracy where ‘people are made to serve the rules rather than rules made to serve the people’. This is 1966, and his passport application goes up the Panchayat government ladder all the way to King Mahendra, only to be rejected.He finally gets to Dartmouth the next year, overcomes culture shock, excels in class, joins anti-Vietnam war protests on campus, and goes on for graduate studies at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton where he admits he was a ‘left-leaning student’. Gautam wants to return to Nepal, but lands a job with UNICEF in Cambodia, beginning a career spanning 35 years. He saw Khmer Rouge atrocities up close, and had to be evacuated from Phnom Penh in a Royal Air Force Hercules to Fort Butterworth as the country descended into the Killing Fields.Many years later when he hears Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai (who reminds him of Khieu Samphan) call the Khmer Rouge genocide a ‘Western exaggeration’ he is convinced revolutionaries seldom learn from history. Gautam then works in Laos and Indonesia and finally is sent to Haiti by his UNICEF mentor, James P Grant. Haiti is a lesson in how ruthless dictators like Baby Doc Duvalier can consign their nations to perpetual poverty.He is posted in Latin America at a time of Liberation Theologists, the Shining Path and Paolo Freire’s theory of conscientização in Brazil. Gautam unrolls Pele as a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/back-to-the-nipple-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UNICEF breastfeeding</a> ambassador, getting his mother to say: “Of course he is the world’s best football player, I breastfed him.”Then it is post-Soviet Europe where countries are collapsing into chaos. Gautam helps coordinate relief for Sarajevo, and gets to sleep in Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha’s bed in Tirana. <figure><img width="1400" height="778" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714114/636902d39c7e80680e037c88jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Grant then posts Gautam to India, where the Nepali overcomes the arrogance of Indian babudom to help locate UNICEF’s regional South Asia office in Kathmandu. He was a ‘Sherpa’ for the historic World Summit for Children of 1990 in New York, negotiating minefields of protocol, egos and geopolitics to get member states to sign the National Plans of Action, which became the model for the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/International/MDG,397" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MDGs</a> and the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/ending-child-marriage-in-Nepal,3864" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SDGs</a> that followed.He has great admiration for Vaclav Havel, and notes that the Czech President died on the same day as Kim Jong-Il in 2011, and that Nepal’s Communists trooped off to the DPRK embassy in Kathmandu to sign the condolence book. He is ashamed not one Nepali leader paid any tribute to Havel.Gautam’s other hero is Nelson Mandela, who impressed him in Pretoria with his disregard for pomp and protocol. Unlike some ‘democratic’ Nepali leaders, Madiba never had to show how important he was by displaying trappings of power.Years later, Gautam sees lessons for Nepal in Mandela’s handling of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/truth-about-truth-commission,3565" target="_blank" rel="noopener">truth and reconciliation</a> and the dangers of ethnic Bantustans.Parts of the book about Gautam’s return to Nepal after retirement are extracted from Lost in Transition, where he recounts the efforts to start peace negotiations with UN HQ, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, and directly with King Gyanendra and Maoist leaders.He understands the anger driving the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/the-spark-that-lit-the-Maoist-revolution,2870" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maoist revolution</a>, but never glamourises it like many Nepali and international pseudo-revolutionaries. He calls it like it is: a needless carnage that derailed Nepal’s march towards democracy and development.He is scathing about the organisation he once worked for, the United Nations, and the expats in rose-tinted glasses who led its post-conflict peace mission in Nepal. The past few years have proven Kul Chandra Gautam right: the insurgency was not a revolution but a blatant attempt at state capture by misguided figures espousing an obsolete ideology.Indeed, today’s united Communists have turned out to be worse than the rulers they replaced. The real victims of that ruinous war were the very people who were supposed to be liberated.Because of his own life struggle and wisdom, every word in Kul Gautam’s book rings true, carrying the immense power of his conviction.Also Read: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/upendra-devkotas-lives/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upendra Devkota's lives</a>, Kunda Dixit<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17381#.W2L_WdUzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jhamak Speaks</a>, Supriya Sharma<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18559#.W2L_VdUzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ani's story</a>The mistake in Gautam's years of service and his protest of anti-Vietnam war have been corrected. -Ed <h2>Book excerpt</h2> <img width="612" height="661" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714114/636902d69c7e80680e037c89jpeg.jpg" alt="">As I witnessed the rise of identity politics in Nepal and around the world, it became clear to me that while the human quest for prosperity is eternal and universal, people’s identity changes over time, and depends often on the eyes of the beholder. Taking my own case, I noted how some militant advocates of identity politics in Nepal and some foreign anthropologists and even diplomats tended to place me in a conventional pigeonhole as a “Pahade, Male, Hindu, Bahun from western Nepal.”According to their worldview, people like me would be congenitally doomed to ... defend only the interests of his or her identity groups, and incapable of defending the interests of women, Dalits, Madhesis, Janajatis and other deprived communities. For me personally, the only identity that matters, and that I am proud of, are that I am: a human being, a Nepali and a citizen of the world. All other identities are either accidentally inherited or given to me by others. They may be important as markers of where I am from but of no consequence in terms of the values and principles that I subscribe to.Global Citizen from Gulmi, page 46-47

Kunda Dixit

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Kul Chandra Gautam's long journey home

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111156/6368e44c9c7e80680e0333d0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="659"/>Environmental pollution is not Nepal’s only problem. Citizens around the globe share social, economic and developmental problems. If our situation is the same, our destiny is also the same. So, we have no choice but to unite and solve our problems together. We have to think beyond our surroundings and become global citizens.”These words are not from an environmentalist or a politician, but from Ankit Sangroula, a Grade 8 student at Mount View School in Bhaktapur. Speaking at Hotel Yak &amp; Yeti, his speech left the room full of adults awestruck.Sangroula is one of the students mentored by <a href="https://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/about-programmes/connecting-classrooms">Connecting Classrooms</a>, a joint initiative between the British Council and the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID). The program is designed to cultivate knowledge, skills and values in young people so they can live and work in a globalised economy. Working off the beaten track of academic system, the initiative connects students across the world to foster national and international friendship.It also inspires young people to make positive contributions locally and globally. For example, in Baijanathpur, Morang, eight toilets were built by students from Makalu School without any support from donors or local banks. They gave an alternative to villagers who previously used riverbanks as a bathroom where they were sometimes bitten by snakes or chased by the police, but now they have an alternative. The local village council and the rest of the villagers followed their steps by constructing more toilets.The Open Defecation Eradication Project was one of the Council’s successful Social Action Projects conducted in Nepal’s schools. The projects are student-led initiatives focused on tackling community issues and inspiring leadership and team spirit in students. The Social Action Project has been collaborating with 100 schools from 24 districts, involving 16,200 students and reaching out to around 17,000 community members to solve social problems.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111156/6368e44e9c7e80680e0333d1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="960"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The project results have left many impressed. “When these little students came to us to talk about building toilets, we were so proud of them. All of us here are really thankful for this initiative,” says Jhameli Rishidev of Baijanathpur.In total, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BritishCouncilNepal/">British Council</a> has reached out to more than 250 schools in Nepal through International School Award (ISA), integrated with a curriculum that focuses on digital literacy, critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and imagination, student leadership, collaboration and communication and citizenship.The event where Sangroula gave a confident speech was ISA, one of the key programs of the British Council under Connecting Classrooms that recognises schools showing strong commitment to enriching students’ lives and inspiring interest in international cultures and global issues.“Through ISA, I have learnt to use the knowledge we get from books to solve problems around us. Before, we just read books and listened to our teachers. But now we learn by doing,” says Sangroula.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111156/6368e4519c7e80680e0333d2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="665"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Nineteen other schools were awarded and four schools were re-accredited for the year 2017/18 during the event, out of 42 schools from 14 districts. The award, into its 6th edition, is endorsed by the Department of Education.Connecting Classrooms has reached out to students, teachers and school leaders in over 30 countries to improve teaching and learning experience through school partnerships and policy dialogues, recognising and awarding progressive schools and encouraging students to lead initiatives. It also provides core skill training to school leaders and teachers on how to make the profession more effective and impactful.Dhani Ram Sharma, a teacher from Nepal Rastriya Chandraganga Secondary School in Surkhet says, "ISA brought dynamic changes in our teaching staff as well as students. Students got golden opportunity to interact with international students through Skype and email. We, teachers learnt about ICT and brought changes in our traditional/ lecture teaching approach, developing innovative techniques."<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111156/6368e4549c7e80680e0333d3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107111156/6368e4579c7e80680e0333d4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="417"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Schools receiving International School Award 2017/18<table width="518"><tbody><tr><td width="55">1</td><td width="349">Nepal Rastriya Chandra Ganga school</td><td width="113">Surkhet</td></tr><tr><td width="55">2</td><td width="349">Orchid School</td><td width="113">Chitwan</td></tr><tr><td width="55">3</td><td width="349">Celebration Co-ed School</td><td width="113">Kathmandu</td></tr><tr><td width="55">4</td><td width="349">Vidya Sagar English Secondary school</td><td width="113">Kavre</td></tr><tr><td width="55">5</td><td width="349">Nabin Audhyogic Kadak Bahadur Rita School</td><td width="113">Rupandehi</td></tr><tr><td width="55">6</td><td width="349">Sanskriti International School</td><td width="113">Kathmandu</td></tr><tr><td width="55">7</td><td width="349">Him Rashmi Secondary School</td><td width="113">Kathmandu</td></tr><tr><td width="55">8</td><td width="349">Pragyan Academy</td><td width="113">Jhapa</td></tr><tr><td width="55">9</td><td width="349">KK International School</td><td width="113">Dharan</td></tr><tr><td width="55">10</td><td width="349">Mount View English Boarding School</td><td width="113">Bhaktapur</td></tr><tr><td width="55">11</td><td width="349">Traibidya Sikchhya Sadan Academy</td><td width="113">Kathmandu</td></tr><tr><td width="55">12</td><td width="349">Sudesha High School</td><td width="113">Lalitpur</td></tr><tr><td width="55">13</td><td width="349">Eureka School</td><td width="113">Dharan</td></tr><tr><td width="55">14</td><td width="349">Jhapa Model School</td><td width="113">Jhapa</td></tr><tr><td width="55">15</td><td width="349">Babylon School</td><td width="113">Kathmandu</td></tr><tr><td width="55">16</td><td width="349">Shreejana Higher Secondary Boarding School</td><td width="113">Pokhara</td></tr><tr><td width="55">17</td><td width="349">Ambika secondary school</td><td width="113">Pokhara</td></tr><tr><td width="55">18</td><td width="349">Gorkha Intl Public School</td><td width="113">Dang</td></tr><tr><td width="55">19</td><td width="349">Eurokids school Chhauni</td><td width="113">Kathmandu</td></tr></tbody></table>

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Young change makers

At Budhanilkantha School Ujwal Thapa was a few years my senior. He was a quiet person who kept to himself; I didn’t know him very well despite being related to him because of that introversion and natural shyness. What we did have in common, coming of age in the 1990s, is our generation, GenX, which became weary, inured for the most part, to Nepal’s famously unstable politics.&nbsp; Counting the events of this past September, GenX has, astonishingly, lived through three people’s revolutions, one armed conflict, a flawed but hard won constitution, and a major earthquake. Ujwal Thapa, one of Nepal’s most cherished Gen Xers, despite his previous, youthful reticence, did not long remain a complaisant bystander against the backdrop of these extreme upheavals.&nbsp; By the mid 2000s he had become deeply political, but without the equivocation that so often accompanies politics. Thanks to his lived experience, he came to believe that the youth of Nepal are the key to our future. He believed in discerning wisdom (bibeksheelta), innovation, and nurture. He inspired entire generations, young and old, including GenZ, before his untimely death due to Covid in 2021. He was only 44.&nbsp; By the time of his passing he had started a tech company, and employed and mentored scores of youth. It is important to note that only after he had made a significant contribution to civil society did he turn towards politics, founding and then stepping back from the Bibeksheel Nepali party, which has now, after several complicated mergers and splits, been integrated into the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). When the Ujwal Thapa Foundation set out to make a documentary on his life three years ago, no one could have known that it would premiere at such a crucial point in Nepal’s social and political history.&nbsp; Everything that Ujwal Thapa believed in still holds true. I think he would have been proud to see the youth of our country, GenZ, stand up for themselves, peacefully. He would have been grieved at the state condoned bloodshed, and, believing in non-violent protest himself, been deeply shocked by the savage revolution that followed.&nbsp; Most of all, I wonder how he would have reacted to the publishing of the blatantly elitist RSP proportional representation list - the party that many had pinned their hopes on, and that Bibeksheel Nepali has ultimately been absorbed into. That party now seems like it may be a chip off the rotten old block, ruled by men endorsing rampant nepotism, and outnumbered by people without scruples.&nbsp; Many of the names on the list and the rankings, in particular, disrespect the very spirit of a provision that was created for those competent individuals who would not otherwise be able to contest elections, due to lack of monetary and social capital, but whose marginalised voices are vital for inclusive policy making. There is still time for real inclusion, to embrace a more bibeksheel path, before the March elections.&nbsp; Ujwal Thapa’s own, firm, ethical stances are clear in the The Man Who Shook Our Minds, translated loosely from the Nepali title Dimaag Ghhochne Manchhe. While long, at almost two hours, it is filled with thought-provoking and sage counsel. The film also offers very real insight into how Ujwal Thapa evolved into the icon he is today.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026011111018_eb596eb063dcaf0f67840bfa4ffa39eb27df2bf9ec1a3f9a1f531824c1b7a569.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2026011111018_eb596eb063dcaf0f67840bfa4ffa39eb27df2bf9ec1a3f9a1f531824c1b7a569" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="670" loading="lazy" alt="Ujwal Thapa"> <figcaption>Stills from the documentary.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026011111018_65d9625d3a4865ca228425b7ce7b7b186ae5009313bbfab0ee65eada276aebd6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2026011111018_65d9625d3a4865ca228425b7ce7b7b186ae5009313bbfab0ee65eada276aebd6" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="670" loading="lazy" alt="Ujwal Thapa"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026011111018_2ff455c55722d153cafbd2d650e19584e38d7c098b109271bd106a55201f4fa0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2026011111018_2ff455c55722d153cafbd2d650e19584e38d7c098b109271bd106a55201f4fa0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="670" loading="lazy" alt="Ujwal Thapa"> </figure>  It isn’t easy making a documentary after the passing of the primary subject. While there are many talking heads, the people featured, friends, family, fellow activists and senior politicians are all eloquent in their descriptions of Ujwal Thapa and his transformation from an engaged, civic minded entrepreneur into a committed political leader who among many other commendable things, believed in putting women first, and understood the crucial necessity for a welfare state that would serve its people. The main man is not deified, he is humanised.&nbsp; The feature is punctuated, and leavened, with moments of real humour as his infamous bluntness and occasional domestic haplessness are gently exposed. Another strength of the film is the profound love story between Ujwal Thapa and his brave, brilliant, incredibly resilient wife, Erica Adhikary, the heroine to a real life hero, and a major force behind the making of this film, alongside many of his stalwart wellwishers and friends, old and new.&nbsp; Sushila Karki, the Prime Minister, was present at the premiere of the film with members of her Cabinet. Candid and sincere in her opening remarks, she said she had wanted to attend the moment she heard about the film. She had known Ujwal Thapa, and she had mourned his loss, praying for him during his illness. She wished that leaders like him were here today to show us the way forward in a time of need. The film opened in theatres on the 9th of January, and is an essential viewing experience for anyone who cares about Nepal’s future and wants some insight into how they might make a difference.&nbsp; Ujwal Thapa was not perfect, but he was remarkable. He realised that being a civic minded citizen just isn’t enough. To make a real difference, one also needs to be principled, insightful, entrepreneurial, creative, self motivated, able to speak truth to power, uncorruptible, practical, well prepared, and, perhaps, most importantly, able to step back from holding power even after attaining it.&nbsp; The saying by Plato that goes “He who does not desire power is fit to hold it” was surely meant for people like Ujwal Thapa. One can only hope that in the near future more people embodying this description will, however reluctantly, come forward to lead Nepal. Ujwal Thapa worked hard to enable this, they must be out there. <div class="embed-block"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/veO1yVM4pS4?si=f0Lcbs1wasyqfnK1" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> The Man Who Shook Our Minds is being screened at QFX cinemas across town. Sophia L Pandé is on the Ujwal Thapa Foundation Advisory Board. She is a writer, art-historian and filmmaker, advising on the economic and social potential of the Cultural and Creative Industries. She is Director of Development at the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust, and Founding Director of The Kalā Salon, a non-profit space for the arts.

The Man Who Shook Our Minds

At the stroke of the midnight hour, it finally came to something everyone in Nepal’s oldest and biggest party had been dreading — a split.
Not that this was anything new. The Nepali Congress (NC) had splintered twice before and the main protagonist both times was five-time prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. After the GenZ uprising and being physically mauled and his house looted and set on fire on 9 September Deuba had said he was stepping aside, but it seems old ambitions die hard.
The showdown between the Gagan Thapa-Bishow Prakash Sharma camp and Deuba came to a head on Wednesday as the establishment leadership decided to suspend Thapa, Sharma, and Farmullah Mansoor for five years to punish them for daring to challenge the leadership and hold a special general convention.&nbsp;
Bhrikuti Mandap in the centre of Kathmandu is the venue for trade exhibitions, but this week it was where an exhibition of everything that is wrong with Nepali politics was on full display — lack of internal party democracy and an unaccountable gerontocracy clinging on to power.&nbsp;
Thapa and Sharma had gathered the support of 62% of the NC membership at their convention and chose Gagan Thapa as the new party leader and proposed him as a prime ministerial candidate after the 5 March election.
Deuba’s allies had refused to attend or endorse the special general convention, and were adamant about holding a general convention to choose a new party head after the election. Thapa, Sharma and their supporters argued that the party faced ignominious defeat in the polls if Deuba insisted on being prime minister again.
The events of September 2025 have cast a long shadow over Nepali politics, with many new parties and alliances pledging to represent the aspirations of the GenZ movement. However, that realisation does not seem to have dawned on the tried, tested and failed leadership of the NC, UML and the NCP where the party leaders have held on to power by sidelining all rivals. &nbsp;
Thapa and Sharma were NC general secretaries held multiple rounds of discussions to convince Deuba to accept their eight-point demand that for the party’s and the country’s sake his time was up, and he should cut and cut cleanly. Despite having already handed over the party leadership to Purna Bahadur Khadka in September, Deuba refused to step down.&nbsp;
‘What demands has the Nepali Congress been unable to reconcile that it is headed for a split? There is no ideological dispute, just a proposal to make it easier to go for the election,’ noted journalist and author Narayan Wagle. ‘If those who have been in politics for so many years cannot reach an agreement, what have they learned in life and what hope is there for the country?’
Gagan Thapa was elected unopposed as the new party president on Thursday midnight, with Sharma and Pushpa Bhusal appointed vice-presidents. Thapa has said backroom talks are still ongoing though mediators, but for all intents and purposes the split seems irreconcilable.&nbsp;
The million dollar question now is: who gets to be the real Nepali Congress? Who gets the NC’s tree election symbol at the polls?
Both the Thapa and Deuba factions have written to the Election Commission (EC) laying claim to the party and its symbol. Whatever the EC decides, with less than two months to go for the polls, the dispute over its legitimacy will almost certainly have to be decided in the courts.
Deuba and his counterpart K P Oli in the UML have been unwilling or unable to fathom the level of outrage that young Nepalis feel about their parties. They have shown an inability to heed the call for institutional overhaul within parties and in Nepal’s political culture post-September. Second generation leaders within those parties who have grown old waiting for reform, seem to have better internalised the need for internal restructuring.&nbsp;
Oli has managed to hold on to power after displaying increasing authoritarianism within his UML, while Deuba has shown an unwillingness to bow out of leadership with grace. Both have squandered away their legacy.
For Gagan Thapa, the events of Thursday was a culmination of his long-standing claim for leadership change within the NC coupled with a compulsion to address the demands of the youth movement to maximise gains for his party this election. Just like Deuba, Thapa’s house was also looted and torched during the September protests.
Thapa told Onlinekhabar on Thursday: “Our belief was that we cannot go into elections under the present circumstances under [Sher Bahadur Deuba’s] leadership and with him as the party’s prime ministerial candidate. We would lose.”
The special general convention has taken further steps for reform, endorsing amendments to the party statue, which has set term limits for key leadership positions, including a one-term limit for party president, two-term limit for prime minister, three for a ministerial position, and four terms for a directly elected member of Parliament. Meanwhile, party members are only allowed to become lawmakers through the Proportional Representation system for one term.&nbsp;
If Thapa’s leadership holds legitimacy, this new chapter for the NC might come as a welcome change to young Nepalis who have been calling for leadership overhaul and internal party reforms within the establishment parties. But it may also come at the cost of the NC’s core base. It remains to be seen which side tips the scale at the polls.&nbsp;
The NC’s infighting and institutional shake-up has also posed fresh concerns about how it will affect the election schedule just as it looked as though all the mainstream political parties were finally on board and preparing for the polls. With voting barely weeks away, Nepal’s political parties are still too busy cleaning up their own house to give too much time to work on their platforms, agendas and serious campaigning
Historically, political break-ups and make-ups in Nepal are not set in stone. Even the newest alliance between Rabi Lamichhane’s RSP and Kulman Ghising’s UNP did not even last 12 days. &nbsp;Balen Shah is set to resign from his mayor position in the next and has gotten into the thick of election preparation with the RSP. His next step will be to choose which constituency he is going to contest from.
Meanwhile, in the light of a new day, the two NC factions may still decide that breaking up is hard to do when they are so close to elections, and the political stakes are so high.&nbsp;

Grand split in Nepal’s grand old party

The 12-day political partnership of Kulman Ghising with Rabi Lamichhane and Balen Shah that ended on Saturday was brief even by Nepali standards.&nbsp;
The Ujyalo Nepal Party backed by Ghising and Lamichhane’s RSP had inked a deal to unite on 29 December, one day after Balen Shah formed an agreement with the RSP to contest the election under the party’s banner.
The alliance between the RSP and Ghising is said to have fallen apart after Ghising asked for institutional and ideological changes within the party, and for members of his team to be given key positions including senior vice-chair and general secretary, as well his stipulation that more than two dozen of his camp be appointed members of RSP’s central committee.&nbsp;
Ghising had also been less than happy about some of his 18 proposed candidates being left off RSP’s Proportional Representation list, and had taken issue with the priority order of those from his camp on the docket.&nbsp;
The merger between Ghising and Lamichhane happened after last minute negotiation before the deadline for the submission of the PR candidate list after multiple previous rounds of discussions between BRK had failed. Ghising had agreed to sit down one final time with the two leaders following a last-ditch effort by youth leaders including Sudan Gurung.
Ghising following his resignation last week had told the press that his partnership with Lamichhane and Shah had not come into effect even though his UNP had formally signed to merge with RSP. The party, which has been hailed as a formidable alternative political foil to legacy outfits in the March polls, had come under considerable criticism for its PR list, most of which included influential public figures as opposed to qualified people who would represent the nation’s socio-culture, socio-economy, diverse ethnic makeup, and geography.&nbsp;
On Saturday, following news of the RSP-UNP dissolution, Ghising was announced as the chair of the UNP, of which he had only remained the patron so far.
That Ghising broke away from Lamichhane and Shah does not come as a shock. Analysts had already predicted the clash of egos between the three figures who have gained popularity through personality rather than ideology driven politics.&nbsp;
It is also not surprising that the new trio has been following the playbook of make-up and break-politics written by the Oli-Deuba Dahal trio that has defined Nepali politics for the last decade.&nbsp;
As the RSP deals with its growing pains, Nepal’s established parties are busy preparing for the polls even as they confront infighting within their own institutions. The Nepali Congress is seeing widening rifts between factions brought on by power struggles between old and newer leadership within the party. The &nbsp;special general convention called by General Secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwo Prakash Sharma began on Sunday amid party president Sher Bahadur Deuba and other senior leaders’ refusal to endorse and attend the event.&nbsp;
The special general convention was called after it was endorsed by 54% of NC’s general convention delegates, but the party leadership has been adamant about holding the general convention to choose a new party head after the election.
The decision to go ahead with the special general convention has been opposed by numerous NC district chapters for going over the head of party leadership. Even so, leaders of the Thapa-Sharma faction expect 60% of the party’s delegates to attend the event.&nbsp;
The Thapa and Sharma faction want the party to contest the election under a new leadership, seeming to have a better grasp on the sheer lack of popularity of the party, especially after GenZ protests. The leaders are banking on having a better outcome at the March polls if there is a change in party leadership.&nbsp;
Leftist leaders like Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the NCP and Baburam Bhattarai have also been busy reaching out to Indian leadership in the weeks leading up to the election.
And while pro-monarchy leaders like Durga Prasai—while initially calling for a royalist mobilisation following the September protests—seem to be laying low lately, only emerging after the Balen-Rabi merger to call them “political actors groomed by foreign powers”, former king Gyanendra during his Prithvi Jayanti address on Saturday took the opportunity to deliver a particularly somber address to the nation.&nbsp;
Gyanendra commented on the youth frustration that led to the September revolt, linking it to the ongoing exodus of young people and capital, as well as geopolitics, and criticising Nepal’s political leadership of “repeatedly using the youth but not understanding their needs”.
“Yesterday, there was concern that there was no development in the country, but today there is a bigger worry that the country itself might not survive,” Gyanendra said in his remarks. “This country was not built, nor will it be built, by speeches, magic or miracles.”

BRK break up

This is the 79th episode of Diaspora Diaries, a Nepali Times series in collaboration with Migration Lab providing a platform to share experiences of living, working and studying abroad. <h2>Jitu Mahato</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260111140148_c150516456fed4f4408836b4b955ab937ec54df96456f1f2836d138c597ef7e4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20260111140148_c150516456fed4f4408836b4b955ab937ec54df96456f1f2836d138c597ef7e4" data-rendition-name="original" width="4032" height="2268" loading="lazy" alt="Our migrant sons NT"> <figcaption>Jitu Mahato</figcaption> </figure>  I have three sons. My eldest worked in Saudi Arabia for ten years and then went to Dubai. My second son has lived in Dubai for four years. My youngest worked in Malaysia but came back after his company went bankrupt. Here, we don’t have much land so what they have earned has helped with the grandchildren’s education and other household expenses. My sons feed me, buy my clothes and medication. I take loans from others when I need it for our work in the field and pay them off when they send me money. My farm work is not affected without them here because they had no interest in खेती बारी anyway, even when they were here they did not want to step in the fields. Many youth have migrated from our village. Some have gone to Malaysia, others to the Gulf. Some have done well, others have not. Some buy land or pay off loans, others come back without saving much.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260111140148_086cc14e33c827865d30c07b18bf34d0d06427459ba7b44f6f9ff6b84264e9d7.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260111140148_086cc14e33c827865d30c07b18bf34d0d06427459ba7b44f6f9ff6b84264e9d7" data-rendition-name="original" width="4032" height="2268" loading="lazy" alt="Our migrant sons NT"> <figcaption>Jitu Mahato with a scooter that his son brought him.</figcaption> </figure>  Children can go to school wearing better clothes because of the money migrants send home. There are both good and bad sides of foreign employment. The earnings help because without it we would die hungry. But there are no young men in the village, everyone is abroad. We are old. We are not educated. Even small things like paperwork that require someone who knows how to read and write become inconvenient without them around. During hardships, it becomes more difficult and whoever is left behind comes together to help each other in whatever way we can. My son recently bought me a scooter, as I am getting older and it has become difficult to get around. It has made it convenient to visit my daughters' house and other places. <h2>Mohan Bahadur Karki</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260111140148_cc859f5911adbc106596042b13f89007ea09652046683397351a4f7ef11bab2e.png" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20260111140148_cc859f5911adbc106596042b13f89007ea09652046683397351a4f7ef11bab2e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1446" height="796" loading="lazy" alt="Our migrant sons NT"> <figcaption>Mahan Bahadur Karki and his wife.</figcaption> </figure>  All three of our sons are working in Malaysia. We had trouble feeding ourselves so they wanted to go and earn for the family. Having sons overseas has helped ensure we can survive, and have clothes to wear. We used to live in a mud house in the past, which had to be repaired over and over again. Now we have a concrete house. All our children and grandchildren should have been living with us, but feels empty sometimes with just the two of us.&nbsp; We have moved many times in our life. This is the ninth place we are living in. Now we won’t move. My son sent the design of the house from Malaysia. He sent a picture of a house he liked from there to the contractor here. It is an exact replica, and people even come here to make Tiktok and music videos.&nbsp; Even in my dreams, I never thought I would one day live in a house like this. Our sons were smart, and managed it. People get surprised that I, a labourer who worked in others’ fields, live in a house like this, but we still have outstanding loans for this house. Many youth from our village have left. Some have lost their jobs and returned. Ours are thankfully okay so far, but one of our sons' companies has started laying off workers so he might be next on the list. Overtime hours have also been cut in Malaysia, they say. We will see.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260111140148_504a381f7e06431c61d75a4e890e48a786f9b3eea4e23d280dd55161378ce84d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20260111140148_504a381f7e06431c61d75a4e890e48a786f9b3eea4e23d280dd55161378ce84d" data-rendition-name="original" width="5712" height="3213" loading="lazy" alt="Our migrant sons NT"> </figure>  We have faced too many difficulties during our lifetime. We don’t know what is waiting for us next. All our lives, we have faced difficult periods uncertain about the next day, the next night. Life has been full of tests. Farming is not reliable because the rains are erratic. Too much of it this year. It was okay for paddy, but not for tomatoes. As you get older, you cannot work as much. While you have your youth, you can earn. I never got to migrate overseas, I grew old just ploughing fields. I did not get an opportunity to study. I don’t even know how to write my name. I worked as a labourer all my life to take care of the family because the land did not produce enough. Now I cannot work, even if I wanted to. I am not so strong anymore, and my mind is not as sharp. Thankfully my sons have taken over and they tell us not to work hard and to rest, they will take care of us.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260111140148_2f483a1ed383f6697f928147b2d1ab5544cca96ae4902a31ca353c135ec0bb67.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20260111140148_2f483a1ed383f6697f928147b2d1ab5544cca96ae4902a31ca353c135ec0bb67" data-rendition-name="original" width="5712" height="3213" loading="lazy" alt="Our migrant sons NT"> </figure>  They remind me not to carry heavy loads or push myself too hard in the fields. I have started getting sick more frequently. I spend quite a lot on medication. At some point, I had become near immobile for two months and could not even go to the bathroom. I had to come back from Kathmandu with medicine that cost Rs14,000. If my sons had not gone overseas, we would be relying on our farming. Things would have been tougher. We don’t know how long they will stay overseas. I heard there is a limit of ten years in Malaysia. Once they are back, maybe they will go back to the fields. What other option do they have? But we cannot always rely on overseas work either. What to do? Life’s challenges don’t go away but you have to figure ways out to deal with them. As long as there is even one breath left, we must keep fighting. <h2>Tukra Bahadur Ale Magar / Gangi Maya Ale</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260111140148_8111f8c7205ccf48f9671e1fd3661aec32bd522819447c648037f84b70a0b55f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20260111140148_8111f8c7205ccf48f9671e1fd3661aec32bd522819447c648037f84b70a0b55f" data-rendition-name="original" width="4032" height="2268" loading="lazy" alt="Our migrant sons NT"> <figcaption>Tukra Bahadur and Gangi Maya Ale.</figcaption> </figure>  [Gangi] My son is in Malaysia. He sends us money and we spend on household expenses. I wish we could save money too but we have not been able to. It balances out. He could not get a job here, so he left. Parents do not want to send their children away, but what could we do? We have to spend Rs3,000 just on medicines every month. I am always worried about my son, it's not the same as having them in front of me. When he falls sick, there is no one around and he does not even get to take time off without wage deduction. Those things worry me, having him around was more assuring. Before Malaysia, he worked in Dubai for six years and was back here for two years in between. He got married then and re-migrated as responsibilities increased. The earnings of Dubai is this house. [Tukra] We used to have a small mud house but my son said we should invest in a stronger house. I did not go abroad myself because it was not common in our village back then. But now it has become a trend and our son also left. I wish I had got to migrate as well. By not migrating, I think I did not get to see the world. How is the world? How is it to earn abroad? I have never been in a plane, I just have six goats and the farm. Everything is going alright. <h2>Nirmala Rana Magar</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260111140148_92f559b9b08434a9eaeddaee13ae180304453dd300a24e7b86a8dbab78e454f6.png" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20260111140148_92f559b9b08434a9eaeddaee13ae180304453dd300a24e7b86a8dbab78e454f6" data-rendition-name="original" width="1388" height="797" loading="lazy" alt="Our migrant sons NT"> <figcaption>Nirmala Rana Magar</figcaption> </figure>  Two of my sons are abroad. One in Kuwait, the other in Malaysia. The younger son migrated more recently and his earnings have mostly gone to pay off recruitment loans. The elder son built this house for us. Before this, we lived in a mud house which I had built with the earnings when I worked in India. &nbsp;Money is important but I miss my sons everyday. I have a lot of love for them. When you have your children, you have the world. We talk in the mornings and evenings via video calls.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260111140148_b66a6e79992800e5525b65993fa589b126b58c4a1c549a010ca88ece85891608.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20260111140148_b66a6e79992800e5525b65993fa589b126b58c4a1c549a010ca88ece85891608" data-rendition-name="original" width="5712" height="3213" loading="lazy" alt="Our migrant sons NT"> </figure>  They had to move overseas because we could not survive on their earnings here. We can now afford the school fees of the granddaughters, but their dads around would have been better for them. But what can we do? We had no choice. The recent GenZ protests gave us some hope that things will be better, but it is still unsure. When will the day of the poor come? Will we ever get to live a decent life? No matter what happens, no matter who is in government, it is the poor like us who suffer. So many governments have changed but we are stuck where we were. If our children got good jobs, we would be happy.

global-citizen

Kul Chandra Gautam's long journey home

Young change makers

The Man Who Shook Our Minds

Grand split in Nepal’s grand old party

BRK break up

Our migrant sons